I see. My laptop is pretty small, so I tend to over estimate size. I do you think the font could be smaller?
@GuriGuri Nono, it's meant for a phone anyway, so you're probably fine on font size. I always use my browser because that's where I read the forums and I have a very large monitor.
I read through all your chapters and thought the dialogue was actually very well paced! Not every expression needs an internal dialogue somewhere and adding something like that may actually make things too text heavy. (and omg Gray is such a cutie I love that little bean)
When there's too much text my brain kinda switches off and I tend to scroll over without fully processing the conversation of the characters. That's just my experience though!
As much as it was sound advice that was given to you, I feel like it's one you don't need to take. It's important to keep in mind the webtoon scrolling format changes the dynamic of reading the comic. Pacing in a traditonal comic was often used with descriptive or internal monologue to keep a person on a single panel and let the scene sink in. With the scrolling format it's still possible to place lengthy text, but it's not as effective from my experience as a webtoon reader.
Tldr; Your comic is so charming the way it is! I love the moments we get to see the characters regard one another. It gives them life honestly, and I think you're doing just fine!
Best of luck! I hope this helped 
Moms are NEVER good benchmarks for webcomics. I love my mom but she knows nothing about comics, or fantasy stories, and I have to explain every page I post to her even though my readers can all understand what’s going on. I know it’s hard to trust the fellow comic readers and creators that enjoy your comic over your own mother, but in this case it’s really best that you try!
It depends on the characters personality. I'm the same way, don't talk much in public and neither does my main character. However her inner monologue is NON STOP. That could be a way to show what the character is thinking even without text. Just write their inner monologue
I listen to other people's conversations. I know it's a bit rude, but it's a good way to make realistic dialogue. I would say to not focus on WHAT is being said, but instead focus on HOW it is being said. Listen to the people's voices (do they have an accent, a verbal tick, their tone, their delivery), pay attention to body language, body language is excellent to learn to understand subtext. The key to good dialogue is to understand your characters, not witty language.
Could you elaborate on this?
I'm not getting the part about the 'key to good dialogue is to understand characters' created by their own creator.
Why would a writer not understand their own fictional story and made-up characters?
Sure thing.
Just because you created a character and you have an idea what kind of character they are doesnt necessarily mean you KNOW your character. A bit of a question for you, if presented with a choice are you certain that your character would respond in the way you expect or would your character subvert your expectations? This is something I usually ask myself when writing a character. If you choose the first option then your character kinda doesnt have room to grow, therefore dialogue remains the same and would seem surface level. But if you choose the second option, then you know that your character would have another layer to them that would give their dialogue some much needed layering. They'll say one thing but they mean something else, but the other characters/readers would be none the wiser. Even you the creator. Because youre constantly writing your characters youre constantly putting them in situations that they would have to solve. You may have an idea of how theyll solve it, but thats not usually the case. The creator is still getting to know the character. The longer you write them the more they grow and evolve into something that you didnt plan.
Dont know if that helps. But it's how I do things and write my characters.
You can't be serious here. Who else will know my mind better than me?
If any reader doesn't agree with what my story and characters represent, that reader can move on to other options more suitable for them.
That's a really absurd question there. I am the creator of all the characters in my fictional story. I pull their strings, I am their God. I structure the world they live in, I write the story they are a part of. Why would they do anything other than what I want them to?
They are figments of my imagination and not actual beings with minds of their own.
Yes, I put them in situations that I have plotted out from beginning to end and every character of the story follows their individual story arc that is determined and completed by me, the creator.
The Characters don't have to solve anything by themselves, they're as imaginary as the story they're in.
This is quite preposterous. "Didn't plan." Then how would one even write a story? Without a beginning, a middle and definite ending' how would you even know what you're writing?
All I get from this is that you don't write stories, you just write characters, and characters without a story have nowhere really to go.
Sure you know yourself more than anybody. But you need to disassociate yourself with your characters. If you keep a close minded approach you won't grow as a writer/story-teller/artist.
This is highly arrogant. If you don't see your characters as people/beings with minds of their own, then your characters will remain the same way throughout the story, and this is honestly a boring way to write. World building is only as good as the people inhabiting it, the history, the culture. You being their "god" has nothing to do with it.
Then I would have to say, that you have no clue how to properly develop or treat a character. By that statement, it seems that your characters can easily be interchangeable, and it would't matter who your characters are as long as they serve your plot.
Again, you're talking about PLOT, and not CHARACTER. PLOTS can develop with a beg/mid/end, a CHARACTER should not. Characters should evolve on their own terms otherwise their actions would be predictable, because the plot has already dictated which action the character should take. and that's boring.
Characters are the story. Again you're talking about plot. Plot and story are two different things. Plot is what happens, Story is what is it about. It's the question of finding meaning. You don't find meaning in events, you find meaning in how your characters react to said events.
You want to be a god who dictates what the world should be, while I want to see my characters change it.
Good day.
If I may chime in, I have written characters that @AyAyRonM is describing. It took pretty heavy criticism from a reviewer to see it but it was very glaring after the fact.
I made a short comic for a local printed anthology a few years back. My mistake was I wrote it solely for the plot twist at the end. The characters were basically just written to bring it up to that 'wtf' moment.
The characters themselves were some I've had with me for awhile, I wanted to tell a key moment in their lives from the bigger story I had for them. I thought I knew them well enough to make this comic great.
When the review came up it commented on how the characters fell into very typical and cliche tropes to push the narrative. It wasn't wrong, and it made me rethink the entire way I want to write comics.
TLDR;
The point I wanted to get across is that it does happen to some people. Some people will have a greater advantage of knowing how to write portrayals much earlier on in their journey while others will struggle with it for much longer. It's different for every person.
@buttersphere
Curious to know, how often do you find yourself questioning whether or not a story is going along by your terms, or by your character(s)' terms? In other words, do you drive the car, or do you let your characters drive--and do you find yourself allowing them to drive the story more than yourself, or prefer that you drive til the end?
Before I didn't question it all that much, and I was definitely driving most of my previous story ideas. Which more often than naught lead to me feeling stumped. The story and world would feel so cool and exciting, but the main character would feel so plain and 'going through the motions'.
Now I find myself kind of inbetween? When I have a story idea I have steps to follow and an end in mind. However, the way my characters are being molded have been changing the narrative of how they get there.
The characters in the previously stated comic story have had huge overhauls, and I write the plot twists to better serve the characters and how said twists change things for them.
It's hard to really explain without getting into too much detail, but even with the changes I keep making I feel more confident in writing than I did before.
I feel you. There are times when I really question who should have more agency in story, me or the characters. Just wanted to hear what others opinions are on this, and see if I can pick up some pointers. Thanks for feedback
At no point have I mentioned that every character is me. I stated that every character I create is from my imagination, an imagination that is inspired and fueled by the real world around me.
The fictional characters I create have the sole purpose of being a part of the fictional story I have created and plotted down well in advance. The characters are not real individuals to do as they please and not follow the path I have set for them within the context of the imagined story.
If that is boring to you, then you have never read a good book.
What the heck? Minds of their own? They’re figments that have sprung from my mind and they will have ‘minds of their own’ within the context of my story, minds which again spring from one source, my mind.
Can you elaborate how your characters with ‘minds of their own’ tell you how to write their stories? And if they have ‘minds of their own’, couldn’t they just write their own stories? Why’d they need you to write it for them?
Characters I have created can do nothing without me, and that makes me their God. And exactly what is ‘highly arrogant’ about playing with my toys the way I want to play with them?
Really? What other purpose should a character serve if not to play their part in the story in which it is confined to? When you’re only developing a character without a story, they’re like a wheel without a cart.
Why should the characters not be interchangeable? Characters only exist to serve the plot of the story. Why else should they even exist?
Again, they are figments of imagination and cannot have their own terms. Terms are set by the writer/creator.
Well, do your surmise that the reader already knows about the plot of the fictional story?
The writer does of course, because the writer plotted the entire thing, including all the fictional characters and their parts in it.
Imaginary Characters are part of the fictional story. The same way as the imagined world, the fictional environment and the constructed events are created to follow the narrative of the story. What’s the point of a story if your character isn’t defined to fit in and just needs constant development and rectification outside the story?
Yes, I do - in the ‘fictional world’ that I created in my ‘fictional story’ comprising of ‘fictional characters’ created to fit into the imaginary world they’re set in.
What are your ‘fictional characters’ going to change in your ‘fictional world’ that you have not ‘pre-determined’ yourself?
@buttersphere9h
Your response makes a very good point and I appreciate that - The point that not everyone will agree with everyone else on everything. And there’s nothing one can do about that except to go on doing what works for them at a personal level and for the larger market that buys their work.
Yes, that is true but I don’t see anything wrong with it. Most ‘whodunits’ have to follow the typical trope and clichés when it comes to plot twists or else that genre will usually fall flat. It ‘mostly’ wouldn’t work in Fantasy, Sci-Fi or good old Super Hero comics.
The exception I am taking here, with @AyAyRonM9h comment is this –
I find this statement very asinine as well as insulting to writers in general.
This was mostly supposed to be about having too much or too little dialog, but I think the thread got a little drailed... Buuuuut since we're here I'll just add my two cents.
Obviously you two are on two different extremes when it comes to approaching your work. One being the type to completely plan your story out and the other being more of a go with the flow type.
But I think you're both missing the main ingredient of this whole discussion... Context.
If I make an action/adventure story, then of course you want your story to be plot out as thoroughly as possible. But if I make a slice of life story where the plot is just "live life" then developing your characters is going to be a priority and you can get away with having a vauge understanding of the plot.
@GuriGuri
Yes, you are right. I apologize to you, the OP, for this thread being hijacked in this manner.
This thread here - ‘How do you write Your Stories’ POLL3
is more appropriate for the kind of discussion that your topic got inadvertently swamped with.
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